It is known that the Scanning Tunnelling Microscope (STM) can not only image at the atomic scale, but can also be used to manipulate matter at the atomic scale. Research groups are therefore interested in using a STM to fabricate atomic scale semiconductor devices, and very recently it has been shown that it is possible to use a STM to pattern P donors in silicon with atomic precision5.
It is desirable to connect macroscopic leads to a buried nano or atomic-scale patterned conducting region made with a STM once it is removed from the vacuum environment. A difficulty arises when the patterned conducting region is not visible, for instance it may be encapsulated under several tens to hundreds of nanometers of silicon and therefore be invisible to optical and electron beam microscopes. In this case, the challenge is to find a way to register the, perhaps atomically accurate, patterned conducting region to the silicon surface.
Many groups across the world have tried to develop a functional registration process for making accurate electrical contact and control gate electrodes to individual buried STM fabricated structures. To date none have succeeded.
A number of papers relevant to the working of this invention are cited below and these are also incorporated herein by reference:    1L. Oberbeck, T. Hallam, N. J. Curson, M. Y. Simmons and R. G. Clark, Appl. Surf. Sci. 212-213, 319 (2003).    2J. W. Lyding, T. Shen, J. S. Hubacek, J. R Tucker, and G. Abeln, Appl. Phys. Lett. 64, 2010 (1994).    3J. R. Tucker and T. C. Shen, Solid-State Electron. 42, 1061(1998).    4J. L. O'Brien, S. R. Schofield, M. Y. Simmons, R. G. Clark, A. S. Dzurak, N. J. Curson, B. E. Kane, N. S. McKalpine, M. E. Hawley, and G. Brown, Phys. Rev. B 64, 161401 (2001).    5S. R. Schofield, N. J. Curson, M. Y. Simmons, F. J. Rueβ, T. Hailam, L. Oberbeck, and R. G. Clark, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 136104 (2003).    6T. C. Shen, J. Y. Ji, M. A. Zudov, R. R. Du, J. S. Kine, and J. R. Tucker, Appl. Phys. Lett. 80, 1580 (2002).    7L. Oberbeck, N. J. Curson, M. Y. Simmons, R. Brenner, A. R. Hamilton, S. R. Schofield, and R. G. Clark, Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 3197 (2002).    8J. E. Vasek, Z. Zhang, C. Salling, and M. Lagally, Phys. Rev. B. 51, 17207 (1995).    9J. J. Boland, Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 1539 (1991).    10E. Hill, B. Freelon, and E. Ganz, Phys. Rev. B 60, 15896 (1999).    11H. Nakazawa, M. Suemitsua, and N. Miyamoto, Surf. Sci. 465, 177 (2000).    12M. Dürr, A. Biedermanm, Z. Hu, U. HÖfer, and T. F. Heinz, Science 296, 1838 (2002).    13D. R. Bowler, J. H. G. Owen, C. M. Goringe, K. Mild, and G. A. D. Briggs, J. Phys. Cond. Matt. 12, 7655 (2000).    14B. S. Swartzentruber, Y. W. Mo, M. B. Webb, and M. G. Lagally, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 7, 2901 (1989).    15R. J. Hamers, R. M. Tromp, and J. E. Demuth, Phys. Rev. B 34, 5343 (1986).    16E. J. Buehler and J. J. Boland, Surf. Sci. 425, L363 (1999).    17Y. Wang, M. J. Bronikowski, and R. J. Hamers, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A. 12, 2051 (1994).    18D. P. Adams, S. M. Yalisove, and D. J. Eaglesham, Appl. Phys. Lett. 63, 3571 (1997).    19M. L. N. Kitamira and M. Webb, Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 2082 (1993).    20R. N. A. Natori and H. Yasunaga, Surf. Sci. 397, 71 (1998).    21E. Kim, C. Chen, T. Pang, and Y. H. Lee, Phys. Rev. B. 60, 8680 (1999).    22Y. Wang, X. Chen, and R. J. Hamers, Phys. Rev. B 50, 4534 (1994).    23F. J. Rueβ, L. Oberbeck, M. Y. Simmons, K. E. J. Goh, A. R. Hamilton, T. Hallam, N. J. Curson, and R. G. Clark, Submitted to Nano Letters (2004).    24D.-S. Lin, T.-S. Ku, and R.-P. Chen, Phys. Rev. B 61, 2799 (2000).    25G. Bergmann, Phys. Rep. 107, 1 (1984).    26S. Hikami, A. I. Larkin, Y. Nagaoka, Prog. Theor. Phys. 63, 707 (1980).    27R. Tucker, T.-C. Shen, Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 28, 553 (2000).    28G. L. Snider, J. Appl. Phys. 85, 4283 (1999).    29J. C. Kim, J.-Y. Ji, J. S. Kline, J. R. Tucker, T.-C. Shen, Surf Sci. 538, L471 (2003).    30G. E. Moore, Electronics 38, 114 (1965).    31see e.g. S. M. Sze, Semiconductor Devices—Physics and Technology (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1985).    32P. M. Fahey, P. B. Griffin and J. D. Plummer, Rev. Mod. Phys. 61, 289 (1989).    33J. F. Nützel and G. Abstreiter, Phys. Rev. B 53, 13551 (1996).    34E. Friess, J Nützel and G. Abstreiter, Appl. Phys. Lett. 60, 2237 (1992).    35K. D. Hobart, F. J. Kub, G. G. Jernigan and P. E. Thompson, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 14, 2229 (1996).    36R. G. Wilson, F. A. Stevie and C. W. Magee, Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1989).    37J. F. Nützel and G. Abstreiter, Phys. Rev. B 53, 13551 (1996).    38S. Hikami, A. I. Larkin, and Y. Nagaoka, Prog. Theor. Phys. 63, 707 (1980).    39B. L. Altshuler, A. G. Aronov, A. I. Larkin, and D. E. Khmel'nitskii, Sov. Phys. JETP 54, 411 (1981).    40Palasantzas, G.; Ilge, B.; Rogge, S.; Geerlings, L. J. Microelectron. Eng. 1999, 46, 133.    41Dunn, A. W.; Cotier, B. N.; Nogaret, A., Moriarty, P.; Beton, P. H. Appl. Phys. Lett. 1997, 71, 2937.    42Hul'ko, O. V.; Boukherroub, R., Lopinski, G. P. J. Appl. Phys. 2001, 90, 1655.    43Hersam, M. C.; Abeln G. C.; Lyding, J. W. Microelectron. Eng. 1997, 47, 235.